Too much of everything

The acting in this movie is really good.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

An awkward, ridiculous, pathetic interpretation! Beethoven loved only music and himself. He hated his father. He hated all women and all children because they were mere distractions from his work. The immortal beloved is music. That is the truth. Script 4 Director 4 Actor play 8 Gary Oldman 5 the others subtotal 6.5 Entertainment 7 (6 nice decorations and costumes +1 for scene of Starlight sky) TOTAL 5

I don't give out 10 star reviews very often, but this film is one of my very favorites - and not just because I'm a huge fan of Beethoven (because this film is about something much larger than Beethoven). This is a romantic tragedy on one level - and a real tear-jerker - but it is also brings to life the composer's times and the many fascinating people who surrounded him. The story is surprising on many levels and rises far above the typical movie about great composers. This movie is a great movie in its own right - from the script, to the acting, the cinematography (absolutely gorgeous), the directing, the camera work, and of course the music which is used naturally and to great effect. This is perhaps Gary Oldman's very best movie (and that's saying a lot, because he is, of course, a brilliant actor and great chameleon, able to play any kind of role) - you really believe you're watching Beethoven himself. And Jeroen Krabbe is incredible, too - what a moving performance he puts in as Beethoven's loving assistant. Isabella Rosellini puts in a fabulous performance, too, (perhaps her best) as does Johanna ter Steege. (If you didn't think Isabella was a fine actress because of her sometimes dubious choice of roles, you have to see her in this movie! Her mother would be proud.) Aside from biographical surprises, too, there are historical surprises you'll learn in this film - realities not brought out in those old history books you read in school. You'll find yourself recommending this film to all of your friends and relatives and wanting to see it again and again over the years. If you don't realize how great an actor Gary Oldman is yet, you must see this film.

For me - Beethoven stands alone in his genre - especially for his time. Too many historians worry about minute details in a famous person's life - and discredit stories that take a more artistic approach to revealing something about that person.No one knows all there is to know about a man from the 18th and 19th centuries - especially about his inner soul and what drives him to brilliance and raging behavior. The idea that there could have been someone unknown is enticing, and the concept of a film telling about Beethoven through the eyes of others is not a new one, but a format that allows more flexibility. I personally am glad they took this approach. Character development was therefore much more interesting.Oldman's performance was brilliant - and as is often the case with Oldman - you come to feel you are really watching Beethoven. The other personalities also were developed well - and his music was shown in the context of his times - sometimes harsh (his father's beatings) - sometimes tumultuous (the Napoleonic Wars) - sometimes full of love ( the women in his life who did adore him), - and sometimes driven by personal disappointment and anger (the onset of deafness and possibly an unrequited love.....) Beethoven took music to the next level - adding emotion to the beauty and structure already employed by others..... Some are shocked when I say that he was like the Led Zeppelin of the 19th Century - evoking new responses from listeners then, and still one of the few classical composers that you can play for anyone today and they will say "WOW!". Even those who really aren't fans of this kind of music. That is why they chose the 9th Symphony to celebrate the new millennium in 2000 GLOBALLY. Beethoven is universal and timeless. The movie is a wonderful way of sharing a moment with the maestro.

Not at all convinced. Why? Because this movie has numerous historical inaccuracies aka no chronological order: Ludwig van Beethoven's (17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) total deafness occurs far too early, LvB is conducting personally works he actually never did, composing works in the wrong time order, etc. In addition to that, the movie takes too many liberties, to my taste, about the biographical facts, and to imply that that famous love-letter, written by LvB to his 'Immortal Beloved', would be ultimately his sister-in-law is just utterly preposterous. That letter was written and could have been addressed to several very well known ladies, we meet some of them during the movie, nevertheless no absolute certainty was proved until today. But it's most certainly not his sister-in-law, with whom he had so many conflicts and legal battles over years. The idea that LvB composed the 9th for his sister- in-law as a-forgive-me-for-making-your-life-a-hell is the director's personal fabrication and so is the feeble ending.Also, there is much more to LvB than his 5th, 9th and the Pathetique and it's a shame that even these were cut into bits and pieces and added here and there without any musicality to the frames, but rather as background music.There is short scene when a white pianist is accompanied by a black violinist playing the Kreutzer Sonata; it did ring a bell but I had to look it up. The 'mulatto' violinist was supposed to be George Bridgetower (11 October 1778–29 February 1860) an Afro-Polish-born virtuoso who had a quite tempestuous professional relationship with LvB. Such a shame that this was not more elaborately depicted in the movie. That could have been a great instructive scene.LvB is quite distorted here and even the great actor Gary Oldman can't save his dignity nor the voluptuous and expensive production. Actually Mr Oldman is over the top but I blame it on the pathetic direction.Watchable for the young, but not very instructive.p.s. Hearing the gorgeous Isabella Rossellini speak a couple of sentences in Hungarian made me smile :-)